There is a need to better automate the control (turning On and Off) of lighting at parks and recreation facilities based upon the timing and need of the customer; and in particular the control of ball-field lighting at these facilities. The standard method for controlling ‘general’ commercial outdoor lighting incorporates a time clock and/or photocell to control the respective lighting. In the case of roadway lighting for example, a photocell may be used to turn on the lights when it becomes dark and turn the lights off when it becomes light in the morning. Or in the case of parking lot lighting, a photocell and time clock combination may be used. The photocell would turn on the lights at sunset and an off-time set within a time clock on the same circuit would turn the lights off at a point later in the night. The problem with this traditional lighting control as it relates to ball-field lighting is that the lighting need is not always consistent for a particular facility and the times needed usually vary. Therefore the very consistent and repetitive nature of photocell and/or time clock control doesn't work very well for ball-field lighting control.
The current methods of ball-field lighting control usually involve a person (with keys to a switch box) that roams the parks to turn on and off lights for players, or the use of time clocks, or some combination thereof. There are also some more sophisticated methods of control that exist whereby the parks personnel are able to send lighting schedules via telephone to lighting remote control units. Usually related to the former, is a computer and software that gives the users the ability to enter lighting schedules for several parks facilities and gives the user a certain amount of automated control over their ball-field lighting. Once the user enters the schedules for the various ball-fields, the computer/software combo will utilize a modem and dial out to send the schedules to the remote control units located at the park facilities.
Basically unrelated to the former, is the fact that many parks and recreation departments utilize software to reserve and schedule (book) facilities for use by customers such as Little League teams, softball leagues, soccer leagues, etc. This software is often referred to as Facilities Reservation and Booking Software (FRBS) and works in a similar fashion as software packages that reserve (or book) rooms for hotels, etc. As with many industries, there are just a few of these FRBS companies and these companies have a major portion of the parks and recreation market. Unfortunately, at the present time there is an inability to integrate the lighting control software with facilities reservation and booking software (by others), whereby lighting schedules are prepared from data obtained from the facilities reservation and booking software. These schedules are then subsequently sent out to remote control units (RCUs) at the various respective parks and recreation facilities.
There are some companies that both develop software for the scheduling of remote control units (and FRBS) and also manufacture the remote control units themselves. However, as stated above, problems exist in cases where the developer of the FRBS is different from the manufacturer of the RCUs.
The major FRBS companies do not manufacture hardware that can remotely control the lighting. There have been attempts by developers of FRBS to integrate their product with ‘integration’ software developed by manufactures of remote control units. This process requires the FRBS to output a file (that is not normally required by the facilities reservation and booking software, and therefore it is special and done for the remote control unit manufacturer) that will be read and processed by software developed by the manufacturer of the remote control units. Additionally, the output of this special file only occurs when the user demands it by pressing some sort of control icon or button on the user interface of either software. In other words, the process of outputing the file is not ‘Automated’.
Therefore a need existed to provide a method that would be employed in the case where the developer of the FRBS is different from the manufacturer of the RCUs. In other words, a need existed to provide a method that facilitates the control of remote control units manufactured by Company-A based on information received or gotten from facilities reservation and booking software developed by a different Company-B by way of lighting control integration software (LCIS). A need existed to provide a method whereby the output of any special file would be automated. The method includes methodology whereby a special file is not necessary because the data files of the FRBS are read ‘directly’ by the lighting control integration software. In this case, virtually no changes are required of the FRBS for the system to work. The software would be used in its usual manner and the LCIS would automatically read the data, prepare schedules and send the schedules out to the remote control units.